The House Committee on Science and Technology is examining ExxonMobil’s motives for funding research by an astrophysicist into the impact of climate change on the polar bear population of western Hudson Bay in Canada. New Scientist reports that if polar bears are listed under the Endangered Species Act, steps to protect their habitat could directly hurt ExxonMobil’s economic interests:
The researchers, including Willie Soon of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, published their findings as a “viewpoint”, which is not peer-reviewed. They conclude that the polar bears are not threatened by climate change (Ecological Complexity, DOI: 10.1016/j.ecocom.2007.03.002). “It’s hard to see this article as rigorous, sound science,” [subcommittee chair Brad] Miller says. “The public has a right to know why ExxonMobil is funding a scientist whose writing is outside his area of expertise.” . . . ExxonMobil denied its funding was motivated by political interests.
Really.
Julia Whitty is Mother Jones’ environmental correspondent. You can read from her new book, The Fragile Edge, and other writings, here.
